By: Lucia Moses Bill Clinton may have put his childhood home of Hot Springs, Ark., on the map, but growth in its retail sector and retirement community are what really contributed to its expansion over the past decade. The area was just named one of 49 new Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), a federal government designation that has implications for public spending -- and newspapers.
Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of
The Sentinel-Record there, hopes the designation will nudge advertisers to take a second look at the area. "It gives us higher visibility on the part of people planning schedules," he said.
Hussman is one of several small-town publishers who are mulling over what it means to serve a market that's now one of 370 MSAs. "Smart marketers will take advantage of the opportunity to fine-tune or exploit their image," said Gary Kromer, director of research at the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who has studied the changes.
"It makes it easier to make the case that this is its own distinct market," said John Graham, president of the Newspaper Association of America's Research Federation and manager of marketing services for the Arlington, Ill.,
Daily Herald.
Having an MSA designation doesn't guarantee that new ad dollars will flow through the door, but it will help "bring a market somewhat into the spotlight," said Owen E. Landon III, executive vice president of Landon Media Group, Inc. While most national marketers don't buy ads according to MSA rank, a paper's ability to attract regional retailers may improve, he said.
The MSA changes aren't likely to significantly impact Valassis' market list as its advertising customers tend to select markets according to scanner data and TV markets, said Tamara Oliverio, spokeswoman for the newspaper insert and coupon giant.
Buff Leavy, president and editor of
The Brunswick News in Georgia, hopes the new MSA designation in his coastal market will spur new business and industry growth.
"We're certainly going to play it up to every advertiser we can," said Larry Jock, publisher of
The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., which has become a destination for former Washington, D.C., and Baltimore residents.
The federal Office of Management and Budget, which updates MSAs every 10 years, also revised its definitions of existing MSAs, changes that could impact the markets' local perception, and lead marketers there to rethink how they position their papers, Kromer said. In the early 1990s, for example, Tarrant County was the
Star-Telegram's main focus. But the enlargement of Fort Worth's MSA in 1993 led the paper to identify circulation and advertising opportunities outside Tarrant, he said.
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